2/3 – Rio Driving #1 – Buzios Buggies.

After some high level challenges with a certain big French airline, all three Musketeers had finally left the snow chaos behind and reached Brazil and Buzios late Friday evening. Without maps or GPSs. A weekend in the Brazilian tourist Mecca should do us all good, even though the guys seem to have packed a bit of low pressure and 100% overcast together with the board shorts and sunnies.

Saturday morning started with a beautiful breakfast with Brazilian tunes as background music and we quickly decided to go with this buggy deal, which had been recommended by the hostel owner. Driving around in a bright coloured buggy in between the beaches and bars in Buzios during the weekend seemed like an excellent idea. The four of us took off, with our brains totally switched off regarding anything but beach, beer, wakeboarding, kitesurfing and some more beach. When the rental car lady then asked us for a driver’s license, we looked at each other highly surprised and replied in unison – Is it ok with VISA? No? Ok. Pilot crew card? No…ok. Photocopy of passport? Neither… Ok, so you need a driver’s license to rent a car? Ah...but they're all left in Rio. Some days this country makes a lot more sense than other days.

And just for your knowledge, it seems like this Rio Driving series could end up with a lot of episodes…and the transport of the weekend was not buggies, but the brilliant mini bus hop-on-hop-off taxi services who were always willing to negotiate the route.